LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this module, you will have the following skills:
Creating (rezzing) a basic building block (a prim)
Moving and rotating prims
Changing the size of a prim
Joining (linking) several prims together to form a more complex shape
Cloning prims
You will demonstrate your skills by:
Rezzing prims of different shapes
Moving and rotating prims
Changing the size of a prim
Making an object that uses several prims
Duplicating shapes and objects that you make
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 1
One of the most enjoyable things to do in Second Life is to build your own environment. The interface building tools are available for everyone to use. Your creations can be saved, shared, modified and even bought and sold. Learning how to build can seem intimidating at first. Not to fear! Beginning with this mission, you will learn - step by step.
Instruction
Every object you see in Second Life - from the common cube to the most amazing vehicle or building - has been built, or created, using tools that are available to you. In this mission, you will learn how to find a place to build and create basic shapes, called primitives, or prims for short. See the Torley video tutorial What Is A Prim?.
A Note about WHERE you can Build: In Second Life, you may build only in certain areas: 1. On land you own 2. On land owned by a group you belong to 3. On land owned by a person or group that has given you rights to build on their land 4. In Sandboxes - land set aside just for building.
You can check the building permissions of the land you are on in several ways. In Viewer 2, right click on the white SLurl bar at the top of your screen and select "Show Parcel Properties" from the menu. If you see the icon to the left, that indicates you cannot build where you are located. University of Cincinnati students, faculty, and staff can always access the Sandbox & Testing Area on our virtual campus to practice building. Teleport to the Sandbox & Testing Area now to continue this section.
Practice Building Skills
Rezzing a prim
Selecting a shape
Step 1: Rezzing a prim
The basic building block in Second Life is called a prim, which is short for primitive. Creating, or making something appear, is known as rezzing. See the Torley video tutorial What Does 'Rez' mean?.
To rez a prim, hit CTRL+B to open the Build menu. You will see your cursor turn into a wand. Click on the ground where you would like your prim to appear, or rez. By default, you will see a plywood cube appear.
Try this now: Rez a cube!
Step 2: Rezzing other shapes using the Edit window
You are not limited to cubes. In fact, you can choose to rez several shapes to use in your building. When you created your first cube, you may have noticed a new window open on your screen. This is the Edit window. To rez a different shape, hit CTRL+B again and when the Edit window appears, select one of the other shapes you see. Then click on the ground with the wand.
Try this now: Practice rezzing prims using the different shapes available to you.
Step 3: Cleaning up after yourself
It is important to leave room for others to build. When you are through rezzing prims, Right-click (Cmd-click) on each of your prims and choose Remove and then Delete from the menu.
Moving and Rotating a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 2
Congratulations! You can make building blocks! However, just as with regular building blocks, you need to learn how to move them around to create complex objects.
Instruction
Second Life offers two primary ways to move and rotate objects. You can drag an object around and just "eyeball" it where you want it. Or, you can use numbers to place it exactly where you want it to go. Although you may find you prefer one way more than the other, a good builder knows them both.
Practice
image
Step 1: Dragging a prim
Rez a cube near you. You will see red, green and blue directional arrows showing the x, y and z axes.
Red: x axis Green: y axis Blue: z axis
If you place your pointer over the head or tail of an arrow, you will see it glow more brightly. Click and hold to drag your cube along that axis. You might have to try a few times to get it right, so be patient and point with precision. Hint: you can move your camera angle if necessary to get a better shot.
Practice dragging your prim using each of the directional arrows. Also try dragging using a two-colored arrow if one is visible; this will allow you to move a prim diagonally.
Step 2: Using numbers to position a prim
A prim's position can be described mathematically, using a number for each axis. The number represents exactly where a prim is located on a section of land, called a sim, which stands for simulator, also sometimes called a "region" or an "island" in Second Life.
To see the position of a prim Right-click on an existing prim, choose Edit and select the Options tab in the Edit window.
Change the position of your prim.
Rotating a prim.
When you want to line objects up exactly, building by the numbers is very helpful. You can see these numbers using the Edit window. To do this, either create a new prim, or Right-click (Cmd-click) on an existing prim you've created and choose Edit. Select the Object tab to view the mathematical position of your prim. Edit Window > Object Tab > Position To change an object's position, you can type in a number or use the up/down arrows to the left of each number.
Use the up/down arrows to the left of each number to slightly adjust the position of your object. Notice how far an object moves using only small adjustments. Depending on the axis you choose, your prim will move the following way:
X (Red): East or West Y (Green): North or South Z (Blue): Up or Down
Tip: If you type in a new number, make only small changes at first. If you drastically change an object's position, you may not be able to find it easily!
Step 3: Rotating a prim
To rotate a prim, make sure you have it in Edit mode. If you can't see the directional arrows, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose Edit from the menu. Then hold down the CTRL key and you will see the arrows change to colored circles. Dragging on each of these circles allows you to rotate a prim. You may also select the Rotate button from the Edit window to show the colored circles.
From the edit mode, hold down the CTRL key and click and drag the circles around your prim and rotate it to your liking.
Using numbers to rotate a prim.
Step 4: Using numbers to rotate a prim
A prim's rotation can also be described mathematically. If you remember common angle degrees from geometry, you will see how they look in Second Life! Select the Object Tab to view the rotation degrees of your prim. Edit Window > Object Tab > Rotation To change an object's rotation, type in a value between 0 and 360 degrees. You can also use the up/down arrows to the left of each number to change the rotation one degree at a time.
Change the numbers of each rotation axis and notice what happens to your prim.
Take some time to move and rotate all the prim shapes. Just using the shapes you know, can you make an ice cream cone? What else can you make?
Resizing a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 3
Now that you've seen all the different basic shapes you can rez, it's time to learn to change their size.
Instruction
You can resize a prim to be larger or smaller. You can also change a prim by changing just one dimension of it. For example, you can begin with a cube, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h it into a rectangle. Just like moving and rotating a prim, you can eyeball a prim's shape and size, or resize it mathematically. This lesson will teach you how to do both.
Practice
Rez a cube prim on the ground and hold down the CTRL+SHIFT buttons. You should see the arrows on your cube disappear and small colored boxes will appear on each face of the prim, and small white boxes will appear at the vertices of your prim. To stretch the prim along a particular dimension, still holding down the CTRL+SHIFT keys, left click on one of the colored boxes and click and drag to stretch the prim. To resize the prim in proportion, click and drag on one of the white boxes at one of the vertices (corners) of your prim.
Rez a cube
Drag the colored square handles to stretch the prim
Try this now: Practice dragging the different colored squares to alter both the shape and size of your cube. Try making a large flat rectangle, tall thin tower and everything in between.
Using numbers to resize the prim
Step 3: Using numbers to resize a prim
Just as with positioning and rotating a prim, you can use exact numbers to size a prim. A prim is always rezzed a particular size. A cube, for example, always begins as half a meter (0.500) on each side.
Tip: You may have noticed that when you stretched your prim, it stopped at some point. You cannot make a prim larger than 10 meters in one direction. Prims also cannot be smaller than 0.010 meters when you resize them using these methods.
Practice entering different values for each of the axes to see how they affect the size and shape of the cube.
Step 4: Practice stretching and resizing other shapes
Other shapes stretch and size in slightly different ways. Try this now: Take a few minutes to see how you can alter the other shapes you have to work with.
Step 5: Build a Snowman
Now you can stretch and make shapes different sizes. Can you put them together to make a more complex shape? A snowman, for example? Take some time to create something that takes several prims. You can move prims so they are partially inside each other to create really interesting shapes! When you are done experimenting, make sure to take a few minutes to clean up!
Linking a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 4
In the last mission, you started to put together a more complex object using at least a few prims. You may have wished to "glue" it together somehow and keep it. But how? That is what you will tackle in this mission!
Instruction
Linking is the process of attaching prims together so they can be moved as one object. In this mission you will learn how to link and unlink prims. You will also learn how to edit a prim, even when it's linked to another prim. Finally, you will learn about root prims and why they are important. See the Torley video tutorial Linking Prims.
Practice
Rez two prims, R-click on one and choose Edit mode. Holding down Shift key, click on the other prim
Step 1: Linking two prims
Rez two prims close to each other. Right-click (Cmd-click) on one of the prims to select it and choose Edit mode. Holding down the Shift Key, click on the other prim. You will notice that they are now both highlighted in yellow. Now hit Ctrl-L to link them both and you will see that moving one prim moves them both together.
Rez two prims and link them. Move and rotate them around. Note: If prims are too far apart, you will get a message saying they cannot be linked. The smaller the prim, the closer it must be to another prim to be linked.
To Edit only one prim : Select Edit linked Parts from Edit Menu
The Root Prim is highlighted in yellow
Step 2: Unlinking a group of prims
To unlink a group of prims, Right-click on them and hit Ctrl-Shift-L.
Unlink the two prims you just linked.
Step 3: Linking more than two prims
If you are working with many prims, you can Right-click (Cmd-click) on the first one, press the shift key down and carefully shift-click on each other prim. When you are certain you have selected all of them, hit Ctrl L to link all the prims together.
Rez at least three or four prims and link them all. Check to see if they are linked by moving them as a group. If one gets "left behind", you can select the group of prims and then shiftclick on the ungrouped prim and link it as well.
Step 4: Editing just one prim
To change or delete just one prim in a group, select Edit Linked Parts from the Edit window. Then, click on the prim you want to edit.
Use the Edit Linked Parts button to edit just one prim. Try adjusting the position, resizing or rotating it.
Step 5: Unlinking just one prim
To unlink a single prim, make sure Edit Linked Parts is selected in the Edit Window. Click on the prim you want to unlink. Then hit Ctrl-shift-L to unlink. Now, you can delete that prim without it affecting the other linked prims.
Select, unlink and delete just one prim in a linked group. Make sure you can do this without unlinking all the other prims!
Step 6: About Root Prims
A root prim is the last prim you select when linking a group of prims and has some special qualities you will want to be aware of:
The position of a group of linked prims is based on the location of the root prim.
The name of a group of prims is based on the name of the root prim.
Some scripts will act on the root prim in a special way.
To find the root prim of a linked object, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it so that it is in Edit mode. All the prims will be highlighted in blue except the root prim, which will be highlighted in yellow.
Find something that looks complicated enough to be made from more than one prim. Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose Edit. You should see each prim highlighted, with the root prim in yellow. Note: This is a wonderful way to see how objects have been made!
Renaming your new object
Step 7: Renaming and keeping your new Object
By default, any group of linked prims is called Object. As soon as you create and link something you think you'd like to keep, you should rename it with a descriptive name. To rename an object, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose the General tab from the Edit window. Double-click on Object in the Name field and type in your new name. You may also type a description in the Description field if you wish. Now, when you put your new creation into your Inventory, you'll be able to find it much more easily.
Rez three prims, and name each prim "Prim 1" "Prim 2" and "Prim 3" in the Edit > General > Name field. Then link the three prims together noting which prim you selected as the root prim and what name the linked object has when you are finished. Then Right-Click > Take to take the item into your inventory.
That's the end of the first section of this building tutorial!
Chapter 5: Introduction to Building
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this module, you will have the following skills:
You will demonstrate your skills by:
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 1
One of the most enjoyable things to do in Second Life is to build your own environment. The interface building tools are available for everyone to use. Your creations can be saved, shared, modified and even bought and sold. Learning how to build can seem intimidating at first. Not to fear! Beginning with this mission, you will learn - step by step.
Instruction
Every object you see in Second Life - from the common cube to the most amazing vehicle or building - has been built, or created, using tools that are available to you. In this mission, you will learn how to find a place to build and create basic shapes, called primitives, or prims for short. See the Torley video tutorial What Is A Prim?.A Note about WHERE you can Build: In Second Life, you may build only in certain areas: 1. On land you own 2. On land owned by a group you belong to 3. On land owned by a person or group that has given you rights to build on their land 4. In Sandboxes - land set aside just for building.
You can check the building permissions of the land you are on in several ways. In Viewer 2, right click on the white SLurl bar at the top of your screen and select "Show Parcel Properties" from the menu. If you see the icon to the left, that indicates you cannot build where you are located. University of Cincinnati students, faculty, and staff can always access the Sandbox & Testing Area on our virtual campus to practice building. Teleport to the Sandbox & Testing Area now to continue this section.
Practice Building Skills
Step 1: Rezzing a prim
The basic building block in Second Life is called a prim, which is short for primitive. Creating, or making something appear, is known as rezzing. See the Torley video tutorial What Does 'Rez' mean?.
To rez a prim, hit CTRL+B to open the Build menu. You will see your cursor turn into a wand. Click on the ground where you would like your prim to appear, or rez. By default, you will see a plywood cube appear.
Try this now: Rez a cube!
Step 2: Rezzing other shapes using the Edit window
You are not limited to cubes. In fact, you can choose to rez several shapes to use in your building. When you created your first cube, you may have noticed a new window open on your screen. This is the Edit window. To rez a different shape, hit CTRL+B again and when the Edit window appears, select one of the other shapes you see. Then click on the ground with the wand.Try this now: Practice rezzing prims using the different shapes available to you.
Step 3: Cleaning up after yourself
It is important to leave room for others to build. When you are through rezzing prims, Right-click (Cmd-click) on each of your prims and choose Remove and then Delete from the menu.Moving and Rotating a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 2
Congratulations! You can make building blocks! However, just as with regular building blocks, you need to learn how to move them around to create complex objects.
Instruction
Second Life offers two primary ways to move and rotate objects. You can drag an object around and just "eyeball" it where you want it. Or, you can use numbers to place it exactly where you want it to go. Although you may find you prefer one way more than the other, a good builder knows them both.Practice
Step 1: Dragging a prim
Rez a cube near you. You will see red, green and blue directional arrows showing the x, y and z axes.Red: x axis
Green: y axis
Blue: z axis
If you place your pointer over the head or tail of an arrow, you will see it glow more brightly. Click and hold to drag your cube along that axis. You might have to try a few times to get it right, so be patient and point with precision. Hint: you can move your camera angle if necessary to get a better shot.
Practice dragging your prim using each of the directional arrows. Also try dragging using a two-colored arrow if one is visible; this will allow you to move a prim diagonally.
Step 2: Using numbers to position a prim
A prim's position can be described mathematically, using a number for each axis. The number represents exactly where a prim is located on a section of land, called a sim, which stands for simulator, also sometimes called a "region" or an "island" in Second Life.To see the position of a prim Right-click on an existing prim, choose Edit and select the Options tab in the Edit window.
When you want to line objects up exactly, building by the numbers is very helpful. You can see these numbers using the Edit window. To do this, either create a new prim, or Right-click (Cmd-click) on an existing prim you've created and choose Edit. Select the Object tab to view the mathematical position of your prim. Edit Window > Object Tab > Position To change an object's position, you can type in a number or use the up/down arrows to the left of each number.
Use the up/down arrows to the left of each number to slightly adjust the position of your object. Notice how far an object moves using only small adjustments. Depending on the axis you choose, your prim will move the following way:
X (Red): East or West
Y (Green): North or South
Z (Blue): Up or Down
Tip: If you type in a new number, make only small changes at first. If you drastically change an object's position, you may not be able to find it easily!
Step 3: Rotating a prim
To rotate a prim, make sure you have it in Edit mode. If you can't see the directional arrows, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose Edit from the menu. Then hold down the CTRL key and you will see the arrows change to colored circles. Dragging on each of these circles allows you to rotate a prim. You may also select the Rotate button from the Edit window to show the colored circles.From the edit mode, hold down the CTRL key and click and drag the circles around your prim and rotate it to your liking.
Step 4: Using numbers to rotate a prim
A prim's rotation can also be described mathematically. If you remember common angle degrees from geometry, you will see how they look in Second Life! Select the Object Tab to view the rotation degrees of your prim. Edit Window > Object Tab > Rotation To change an object's rotation, type in a value between 0 and 360 degrees. You can also use the up/down arrows to the left of each number to change the rotation one degree at a time.Change the numbers of each rotation axis and notice what happens to your prim.
Take some time to move and rotate all the prim shapes. Just using the shapes you know, can you make an ice cream cone? What else can you make?
Resizing a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 3
Now that you've seen all the different basic shapes you can rez, it's time to learn to change their size.
Instruction
You can resize a prim to be larger or smaller. You can also change a prim by changing just one dimension of it. For example, you can begin with a cube, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h it into a rectangle. Just like moving and rotating a prim, you can eyeball a prim's shape and size, or resize it mathematically. This lesson will teach you how to do both.Practice
Rez a cube prim on the ground and hold down the CTRL+SHIFT buttons. You should see the arrows on your cube disappear and small colored boxes will appear on each face of the prim, and small white boxes will appear at the vertices of your prim. To stretch the prim along a particular dimension, still holding down the CTRL+SHIFT keys, left click on one of the colored boxes and click and drag to stretch the prim. To resize the prim in proportion, click and drag on one of the white boxes at one of the vertices (corners) of your prim.
Try this now: Practice dragging the different colored squares to alter both the shape and size of your cube. Try making a large flat rectangle, tall thin tower and everything in between.
Step 3: Using numbers to resize a prim
Just as with positioning and rotating a prim, you can use exact numbers to size a prim. A prim is always rezzed a particular size. A cube, for example, always begins as half a meter (0.500) on each side.
Tip: You may have noticed that when you stretched your prim, it stopped at some point. You cannot make a prim larger than 10 meters in one direction. Prims also cannot be smaller than 0.010 meters when you resize them using these methods.
Practice entering different values for each of the axes to see how they affect the size and shape of the cube.
Step 4: Practice stretching and resizing other shapes
Other shapes stretch and size in slightly different ways. Try this now: Take a few minutes to see how you can alter the other shapes you have to work with.Step 5: Build a Snowman
Now you can stretch and make shapes different sizes. Can you put them together to make a more complex shape? A snowman, for example? Take some time to create something that takes several prims. You can move prims so they are partially inside each other to create really interesting shapes! When you are done experimenting, make sure to take a few minutes to clean up!Linking a Prim
BUILDING: INTRODUCTION - MISSION 4
In the last mission, you started to put together a more complex object using at least a few prims. You may have wished to "glue" it together somehow and keep it. But how? That is what you will tackle in this mission!
Instruction
Linking is the process of attaching prims together so they can be moved as one object. In this mission you will learn how to link and unlink prims. You will also learn how to edit a prim, even when it's linked to another prim. Finally, you will learn about root prims and why they are important. See the Torley video tutorial Linking Prims.Practice
Step 1: Linking two prims
Rez two prims close to each other. Right-click (Cmd-click) on one of the prims to select it and choose Edit mode. Holding down the Shift Key, click on the other prim. You will notice that they are now both highlighted in yellow. Now hit Ctrl-L to link them both and you will see that moving one prim moves them both together.
Rez two prims and link them. Move and rotate them around. Note: If prims are too far apart, you will get a message saying they cannot be linked. The smaller the prim, the closer it must be to another prim to be linked.
Step 2: Unlinking a group of prims
To unlink a group of prims, Right-click on them and hit Ctrl-Shift-L.Unlink the two prims you just linked.
Step 3: Linking more than two prims
If you are working with many prims, you can Right-click (Cmd-click) on the first one, press the shift key down and carefully shift-click on each other prim. When you are certain you have selected all of them, hit Ctrl L to link all the prims together.Rez at least three or four prims and link them all. Check to see if they are linked by moving them as a group. If one gets "left behind", you can select the group of prims and then shiftclick on the ungrouped prim and link it as well.
Step 4: Editing just one prim
To change or delete just one prim in a group, select Edit Linked Parts from the Edit window. Then, click on the prim you want to edit.Use the Edit Linked Parts button to edit just one prim. Try adjusting the position, resizing or rotating it.
Step 5: Unlinking just one prim
To unlink a single prim, make sure Edit Linked Parts is selected in the Edit Window. Click on the prim you want to unlink. Then hit Ctrl-shift-L to unlink. Now, you can delete that prim without it affecting the other linked prims.Select, unlink and delete just one prim in a linked group. Make sure you can do this without unlinking all the other prims!
Step 6: About Root Prims
A root prim is the last prim you select when linking a group of prims and has some special qualities you will want to be aware of:To find the root prim of a linked object, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it so that it is in Edit mode. All the prims will be highlighted in blue except the root prim, which will be highlighted in yellow.
Find something that looks complicated enough to be made from more than one prim. Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose Edit. You should see each prim highlighted, with the root prim in yellow. Note: This is a wonderful way to see how objects have been made!
Step 7: Renaming and keeping your new Object
By default, any group of linked prims is called Object. As soon as you create and link something you think you'd like to keep, you should rename it with a descriptive name. To rename an object, Right-click (Cmd-click) on it and choose the General tab from the Edit window. Double-click on Object in the Name field and type in your new name. You may also type a description in the Description field if you wish. Now, when you put your new creation into your Inventory, you'll be able to find it much more easily.Rez three prims, and name each prim "Prim 1" "Prim 2" and "Prim 3" in the Edit > General > Name field. Then link the three prims together noting which prim you selected as the root prim and what name the linked object has when you are finished. Then Right-Click > Take to take the item into your inventory.
That's the end of the first section of this building tutorial!
Continue to Chapter 5: Building: Playing with Shapes